Friends of Falun Gong Europe Asks Cambodian Government to Honour Its Obligation as a UN Signatory to Protect UN Refugees

As you will be aware, both had been granted UN refugee status, and as such, should have been exempt from any such deportation order through the likelihood of reprisals from the Chinese government once they were deported. It is extremely disturbing that the Cambodian police came to their decision following pressure from the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh, especially when the couple had been living and working there, and had been given UN Refugee Certificates.

Mr Li and his wife escaped from China to Cambodia after Chinese President Jiang Zemin launched his campaign of persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, a brutal campaign which has now tortured to death more than 450 people, with thousands more unaccounted for. Over 100,000 have been illegally detained and more than 20,000 have been sentenced to forced labour camps without trial or have been committed to mental hospitals and administered with dangerous mind-altering drugs.

Chinese government estimates now put the number of practitioners in China in excess of 100 million, giving it a greater popularity than the Communist Party; indeed many members of the Chinese Communist Party themselves practise Falun Gong in private. President Jiang had underestimated the spirit of millions of people who had experienced improved health and positive changes through their practice of Falun Gong, and it was this level of resolve which caused the regime to intensify its propaganda campaign, using all the most powerful media at its disposal, resulting in the imprisonment, torture and even murder of thousands of innocent practitioners.

The couple is now being held in a detention centre in Changsha City in Hunan Province. Their fate is likely to depend upon their renunciation of their belief in and practice of Falun Gong. If they do not renounce this belief, which they should be guaranteed by the constitution of the People's Republic of China, they are most likely to be subjected to unlimited imprisonment and physical and mental torture.

It is the belief of the 'European Friends of Falun Gong' that the deportation is a flagrant violation of the couple's official status as UN refugees. We therefore urge the Cambodian government to use all the power at its disposal to safeguard the rights of those with official refugee status and to honour its obligations as a UN signatory and member state to protect all UN refugees within its boundaries. We would also urge your government to make representations to the Chinese authorities to release Mr Li and his wife, and to allow them to return to Cambodia to continue living and working there.